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Using the AMAN-DA method to generate security requirements: a case study in the maritime domain

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Abstract

Security requirements are known to be “the most difficult of requirements types” and potentially the ones causing the greatest risk if they are not correct. One approach to requirements elicitation is based on the reuse of explicit knowledge. AMAN-DA is a requirement elicitation method that reuses encapsulated knowledge in security and domain ontologies to produce security requirements specifications. The main research question addressed in this paper is to what extent is AMAN-DA able to generate domain-specific security requirements? Following a well-documented process, a case study related to the maritime domain was undertaken with the goal to demonstrate the utility and effectiveness of AMAN-DA for the elicitation and analysis of domain-specific security requirements. The usefulness of the method was also evaluated with a group of 12 experts. The paper demonstrates the elicitation of domain-specific security requirements by presenting the AMAN-DA method and its application. It describes the evaluation and reports some significant results and their implications for practice and future research, especially for the field of knowledge reuse in requirements engineering.

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Notes

  1. AMAN () is the Arabic word for security. DA is for domain of application. The name was chosen to refer to security requirements engineering for domains of application.

  2. http://www.jessrules.com/.

  3. The interview instrument can be consulted on this link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/34nb8d4xo4hwuc8/Interview%20instrument.pdf?dl=0.

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Acknowledgements

Authors would like to thank Dr. Zeinab Hmedeh for her valuable help during the development of the AMAN-DA tool and Prof. Bénédicte le Grand for her fruitful discussions and feedbacks all over the AMAN-DA project.

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Correspondence to Amina Souag.

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Souag, A., Mazo, R., Salinesi, C. et al. Using the AMAN-DA method to generate security requirements: a case study in the maritime domain. Requirements Eng 23, 557–580 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-017-0279-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00766-017-0279-5

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